Ramsey Campbell was born on the 4th January 1946. He has been writing horror for over 50 years. He has several pen names that you may or may not recognise – Carl Dreadstone, Jay Ramsay, E.K. Leyton, Errol Undercliffe and Montgomery Comfort. He is greatly influenced by the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Already showing an interest in the horror and sci-fi genres, Ramsey discovered H.P. Lovecraft at the young age of 8 years old. This continued on as a love affair, significantly shaping the words that Ramsey would later on write in his own horror stories. Ramsey’s development was affected by the separation of his parents not long after his birth. He didn’t have much to do with his father until the age of 20 and that was when he was about to die. His mother later on during his life suffered from paranoia and schizophrenia. His mother like him was a writer but unsuccessfully so. She encouraged Ramsey to pursue writing. Ramsey married school teacher Jenny Chandler and had two children with her.

Here are some interesting facts about Ramsey Campbell:

He was president of the British Fantasy Society.

Two of his novels have been turned into movies. Ramsey is a big fan of movies.

Ramsey left school at the age of 16.

Ramsey worked in a tax office for 4 years and a library for 7 years.

There was a time when Ramsey seemed to be against H.P. Lovecraft, which is contradictory to everything else that Ramsey has ever said about H.P. Lovecraft. In 1969 he wrote ‘Lovecraft in Retrospect,’ basically criticising Lovecraft’

s work unreservedly. Yet later in 1985 Campbell is found to be saying “I believe Lovecraft is one of the most important writiers in the field… the first book of Lovecraft’s I read made me into a writer.”

Other than writing, Ramsey is also a proficient editor, helping put together several collections for other writers over the years.